Samsung ordered to pay $5.5 million to former employee

With the recent patent battle with Apple not being enough, Samsung got embroiled in a recent controversy concerning one of its ex-employee and was ordered to pay huge sums of money by a local court.

Samsung Electronics was ordered to pay 6 billion won (US $5.5 million) by a South Korean court to Chung, a former employee who had developed key technologies for Samsung in the TV business by which the company hugely benefited to the tune of 60 billion won ($55.3 million).

Earlier, Chung had pressed charges against Samsung for depriving him of bonus payments after he had developed and later patented around 20 technologies for the firm from 1991 to 1995, profitably increasing Samsung’s revenue thanks to his efforts.

Noting that ‘it is reasonable to pay the creator of the technologies money worth 10 percent of the profits’, the Seoul Central District Court later ordered Samsung to pay 10% of the beneficiary amount to Chung. If Samsung foregoes an appeal, it will have to cough up around US $5.5 million to its former employee as part of the deal.

This might come as a huge shock to the leading electronics manufacturer who is already in a tight spot given its various court battles, petitions and patent wars with competitors with the Apple fiasco being the latest one where Samsung had to pay US $1 billion to Apple for copying the iPhone’s design and UI into its own smartphones.